Lack of Information

[rajpoot]

Well, there's some hope in that then......if the pipe was blocked so that the FAQs could not get through, then the wad of stuff blocking surely must be bigger than the FAQ.........nice. I can't wait for the surprise.

[Polemists]

Yes well hopefully I am not waiting a other month until the vaunted better then wallpapers dev comments come to fruition this time. Something in April would be nice.

[Romavictor12345]

I am so glad other people seem to be aware that there has been no update sence January 26....nothing...an they want to release the game in 2008. it seems that the hardcore fans at totalwar.com don't care....every time i mention it they freak out.

[rajpoot]

Oh they'll have it out by 2008 end. I for one am sure about that. This pause in the FAQs is due to some marketing trouble they're having over there I think.

[Divinus Arma]

Ready for info. Certainly been a while.

[Lord Zimoa of Flanders]

Really curious about the first screenshots of land battles, I want to see cavalry in echelon charging into massive squares and artillery blazing cannister away!

LZ

[Polemists]

The ign questionaire just released was nice I suppose. Still I kind of want something new, like a video or a release date. Not just the same question and answers constantly reworded,

We know it's has naval combat, we know it's viceral, we know it's a new engine, we know you are moving it along, we know about the revoultion and gov types, we know you are trying to improve the AI.

Seriously, give us something new. At this rate there is going to be a leaked demo of the game before I get any cool info.

[Furious Mental]

Well I am pleased to hear there will be dragoons and horse artillery and that your soldiers can shelter behind things on the battlefield. Should open up interesting tactical options.

[rajpoot]

IGN interview! What interview?

Edit :
Alright, found it.

Wow, they're saying that the unit size on the field will be incredibly larger with the new engine keeping fingers crossed to create an uber army of ten thosand muskets, field guns and husars!

[leonardo]

I went to sega's home page and looked up empires, they say it will be released this november

[pevergreen]

Yup, this has been noted.

I will update the Summary Thread soon, if someone wants to PM me a short thing on the IGN question's that are new, I'll throw that in the Summary thread and credit them.

[Joker II]

New info from IGN:

- Regions in the Americas tend to start the game with low populations, and we do model the migration of people from Europe to the Americas as a result of dissatisfaction with their lives in the Old World. Therefore, American regions can see extremely fast development, with population and hence new towns growing much faster than is possible in Europe. Colonial regions also tend to produce exotic commodities such as sugar and tobacco.

- For the first time, we are actually having a technology tree that lets player's research pure technologies as well as construct and upgrade buildings. We have a host of different technologies that the player can choose to focus on. Some will give units new abilities on the battlefield, or allow your artillery to develop new types of ordnance. Some will improve ships' sailing and fighting performance, others will develop your economy and enable new buildings and infrastructure, and others will advance the educational level of your nation and speed up future research.

- We have dragoon units -- mounted men that you can order to dismount and fire and attack the enemy as infantry. Then you can order them to mount up again and chase across the field on horseback.

- We have artillery units, some of which can be limbered up and moved around the field at speed by teams of horses. You can develop all kinds of exotic ammo for them to fire.

- We are working hard to ensure that naval battles assume a greater significance on the campaign map as well and that fleets really project power rather than just being transport containers for armies.

- Religion plays a role in the game, but it doesn't play such as central part as in the medieval era. Religion does have an impact on happiness levels, and conversion can still help bring a newly conquered region under your control.

- We've really beefed up the diplomacy side of the game, and tried hard to make the AI factions behave in a more human way and respond to the player's treatment of them. Religion does play a role in terms of factions' attitudes towards each other, and it can be harder to maintain a close friendship with a faction with a different religion.

- On the battle map (both land and sea), the increase in visual quality and the number of men on the battlefield is incredible. The new engine has allowed huge improvements in graphics, terrain & vegetation, destructible buildings, as well as more advanced unit behaviour and abilities

[General_Someone]

Wow, they're saying that the unit size on the field will be incredibly larger with the new engine keeping fingers crossed to create an uber army of ten thosand muskets, field guns and husars!

That would rock for sure, and were there any other kinds of artillery back then besides field guns?

New info from IGN:

- Regions in the Americas tend to start the game with low populations, and we do model the migration of people from Europe to the Americas as a result of dissatisfaction with their lives in the Old World. Therefore, American regions can see extremely fast development, with population and hence new towns growing much faster than is possible in Europe. Colonial regions also tend to produce exotic commodities such as sugar and tobacco.

- For the first time, we are actually having a technology tree that lets player's research pure technologies as well as construct and upgrade buildings. We have a host of different technologies that the player can choose to focus on. Some will give units new abilities on the battlefield, or allow your artillery to develop new types of ordnance. Some will improve ships' sailing and fighting performance, others will develop your economy and enable new buildings and infrastructure, and others will advance the educational level of your nation and speed up future research.

- We have dragoon units -- mounted men that you can order to dismount and fire and attack the enemy as infantry. Then you can order them to mount up again and chase across the field on horseback.

- We have artillery units, some of which can be limbered up and moved around the field at speed by teams of horses. You can develop all kinds of exotic ammo for them to fire.

- We are working hard to ensure that naval battles assume a greater significance on the campaign map as well and that fleets really project power rather than just being transport containers for armies.

- Religion plays a role in the game, but it doesn't play such as central part as in the medieval era. Religion does have an impact on happiness levels, and conversion can still help bring a newly conquered region under your control.

- We've really beefed up the diplomacy side of the game, and tried hard to make the AI factions behave in a more human way and respond to the player's treatment of them. Religion does play a role in terms of factions' attitudes towards each other, and it can be harder to maintain a close friendship with a faction with a different religion.

- On the battle map (both land and sea), the increase in visual quality and the number of men on the battlefield is incredible. The new engine has allowed huge improvements in graphics, terrain & vegetation, destructible buildings, as well as more advanced unit behaviour and abilities

Nice, but I'm sure some people will have to upgrade their computers to play this, or buy new ones.

[Matt_Lane]

That would rock for sure, and were there any other kinds of artillery back then besides field guns?

As well as smooth bore, muzzle loading cannons there were also howitzers, mortars and later on rockets. At sea canons formed the main stay of ships of the line but cannonades and mortars were also used.

There is also a great variety of projectiles employed. As well as solid round iron shot field artillery would use case and canister shot, explosive shells and later on shrapnel shells. At sea chain, bar and grape shot were also used whilst heated shot was often used by coastal defenses against wooden ships.

[TevashSzat]

- We've really beefed up the diplomacy side of the game, and tried hard to make the AI factions behave in a more human way and respond to the player's treatment of them. Religion does play a role in terms of factions' attitudes towards each other, and it can be harder to maintain a close friendship with a faction with a different religion.

Really hope this happens since its quite ridiculous that AI factions won't surrender or become your vassal when you literally surround their last city with full stacks.

A bigger thing might be to make the campaign AI more competent, ie better army composition, logical management of finances, building up of key cities, wise army movement, ect... Even if the diplomacy was great, it doesn't really matter much if a half decent player can be at war with basically the whole known world and still be able to slowly expand

[Polemists]

Well, they havn't discussed army ai much. I'll be happy if the AI realizes that after 150 years, and one year of war we are not enemies for life lol. I'd be happy to see alliances be meaningful.

Once again I'd be happy with some beefy info, seriously CA, how about some unit previews, is it that hard to make a 3d unit and one paragraph of text? C'mon

[pevergreen]

It could be at this point. I expect full faction videos on IGN in 3-4 months. When that starts, this forum will have a huge jump in activity.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Not too keen on the "pure research" thing, though I'll have to see how it's executed.

[Joker II]

First vid showing Empire will probably be at E3 (15 - 17 July) I guess.

[rajpoot]

This isn't going well, right now they're releasing info at a 'less than a trickle' rate. Then, a little time before the release, we'll be flooded with so much that it'll get confusing as to should I buy or not buy the game. I'd much rather soak in the info bit at a time and make a right decision about the purchase.

[Joker II]

From the dot com forum:

SenseiTW #621

Posts: 1173
04/18/08 18:53:43
CA Staff and Admin
Hi guys,

To shed a little light on our next Q&A - some of the information discussed there will be featured simultaniously in the press. As they haven't been published yet, we are holding on to the Q&A for the time being. I can confirm that it will be soley focused on land battles and we will bring this to you as soon as we can.

Please continue to keep your great questions coming. We have a lot more to tell you...

Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)

[Rhyfelwyr]

Glad to see that, land battles will always be more important for me than naval conflicts.

[phred]

Apologies if this has been posted already.

preorder at Gamestop for 11/11/2008 shipment

http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/Prod...oduct_id=71070

[pevergreen]

We knew the month, but definite dates are always good.

[TevashSzat]

Dates are nice, but I'd rather have it ship in 09 than have it come out with bugs and desperately needing a patch. M2TW passive ai bug anyone?

[pevergreen]

Thats why its coming out in November and not now.

I honestly hope they have a beta.

[rajpoot]

Wow, the price is quite a bit higher than it was with M2TW plus, the system upgrades are going to cost an arm and leg.

[Polemists]

yea well if I ever see anything beyond a q and a or a screenshot maybe I can actually start deciding how much I like or dislike the game.

[Divinus Arma]

First vid showing Empire will probably be at E3 (15 - 17 July) I guess.

That seems like a great guess to me. It would make good marketing sense. They need to explode onto E3 with something spectacular that will sweep awards: "Best of E3", and eventually all of the recognized "Best of.." and "9.7/10, etc." awards they can get.

Those little acknowledgements are huge selling points. I take them seriously when I consider buying a new game. It lets me know I have a solid purchase in my hands.

I have a feeling we will see the boom at E3. We may get some limited info again before then, but nothing "wow". They are saving the "wow" for E3.

Great point Joker II. I can be patient until then.

[Divinus Arma]

Oh, and just to point out how serious developers are getting about games these days:

Since 1999, the title of most expensive game ever made has belonged to Shenmue, an action-adventure game for the Sega Dreamcast, which cost over $70 million to create. Now, according to Grand Theft Auto IV producer Leslie Benzies, Shenmue may have finally been topped.

Although he wasn't sure on the exact figures, Benzies told the Times Online that, over the three and a half years the game was in development, the 1000-plus people working on it probably cost Rockstar around $100 million. And, while Shenmue was only able to sell 1.2 million copies and came nowhere close to making a profit (or even breaking even) GTA IV is in a different situation. Predictions are that the game could possibly gross more than $400 million in the first week alone, making the $100 million price tag more then worth it.

From:
http://arstechnica.com/journals/thum...game-ever-made

$400 million in one week? No movie has ever come close to those numbers. $300 million in profit in just the first week.

TW is, of course, a more niche product, with a specific audience on a limiting type of platform. But the potential to expand into the general market is absolutely there. CA and SEGA must (a) reach outside of the PC and find a way to make the games easily playable on console, and (b) make the game cinematically stunning: Epic music, life-like graphics, realistic feel. And lastly: Split screen battles for two player head-to-head action. Enough people have monster-sized plasmas to make this a reality without it feeling clunky and difficult to manage teeny tiny people.

It can be done. CA can do it. And if they ever have the leadership with the strategic vision to make it happen, CA and SEGA can potentially reap these types of profits too.